Subjective semantic surprise resulting from divided attention biases evaluations of an idea’s creativity

Abstract

the evaluation of an idea's creativity constitutes an important step in successfully responding to an unexpected problem with a new solution. Yet, distractions compete for cognitive resources with the evaluation process and may change how individuals evaluate ideas. in this paper, we investigate whether attentional demands from these distractions bias creativity evaluations. this question is examined using 1,065 creativity evaluations of 15 alternative uses of everyday objects by 71 study participants. participants in the distraction group (treatment) rated the alternative uses as more creative on the novelty dimension, but not the usefulness dimension, than did participants in the baseline group (control). psychophysiological measurements-event-related and spectral eeG and pupillometry-confirm attentional resources in the Treatment group are being diverted to a distractor task and that the Control group expended significantly more cognitive resources on the evaluation of the alternative uses. these data show direct physiological evidence that distractor tasks draw cognitive resources from creative evaluation and that such distractions will bias judgements of creativity.We rely on behavioral methods, that is creativity evaluations of alternative uses (AUs), to test the broad hypothesis that distractions bias creativity evaluations. We leverage psychophysiological methods such as pupillometry and event-related (ERP) and spectral electroencephalography (EEG) to verify that distracted individuals are expending less cognitive resources on the evaluation task. The three methods are complimentary. Established pupillometry, EEG oscillations, and ERP components (e.g., alpha band desynchronization, P300) provide reliable and robust real-time measures of attention and cognitive load 13,14 that is not susceptible to retrospective and subjectivity biases 15 . Multi-method experiments provide support for the existence of a bias. Biases in creativitySelecting among alternative ideas is a fundamental challenge for individuals in a number of different organizational settings 16,17 . To this end, people devote a great deal of time and effort to evaluating ideas. Sevens and Burley 18 find that, on average, managers evaluate more than 3,000 raw ideas to identify one that is commercially successful. The challenge of idea evaluation has only grown with the increase of ideation maximization training, platform-based contests, big data, and crowdfunding as a means of generating a large number of ideas [19][20][21] . The challenge faced by decision-makers is often to select the most creative idea from a myriad of competing alternatives and to reduce biases that may have a detrimental effect on this process 22 .In social sciences, mathematics, and engineering, biases refer to systematic errors impacting performance 23 . Prior research has identified a number of decision-making errors in relatively simple decision-making tasks 24,25 . Research has also examined biases present in creativity 6,26 . Broadly, this research has examined biases ...

A Wandering Mind is Not Always a Creative Mind: How Thought Dynamics Explain the Relationship between Mind Wandering and Creativity

“…That is, no significant relationships were found between the measured thought dynamics and the originality and usefulness attributed to the participants' ideas by the expert raters while negative relationships were found for spontaneous and free moving thoughts with the difference between expert-rated and self-reported usefulness and originality in particular. Taken together, these findings confirm previous research suggesting that the spontaneity (e.g., Calic et al, 2020;Kounios & Beeman, 2015;Ross & Vall ee-Tourangeau, 2022) and free moving dynamic of one's thoughts (e.g., de Rooij et al, 2018;Guilford, 1967;Mednick, 1962;Wu & Koutstaal, 2020) positively relate to creativity. Thought context-whether thoughts occur on task or off task, or thinking occurs during on-task or offtask activities-in itself did not enhance creativity.…”

“…For example, Ding et al's (2021) empirical findings suggest that uses of common objects that are subjectively perceived as more novel are also better remembered in the longer term, likely because they are more salient among other ideas. In addition, Calic et al (2020) suggest that eliciting surprise through distraction influences the subjective valuation of creativity, irrespective of the objective degree of creativity attributed to an idea. This is complemented by studies on insight problem solving and the AHA!…”

Virtual reality application influences cognitive load‐mediated creativity components and creative performance in engineering design

“…Therefore, many studies have reported that cognitive load should be reduced to enhance creative performance. However, some researchers have shown cognitive load and creative performance to be positively correlated (Calic et al, 2020), indicating that cognitive load improves creative thinking (particularly with respect to partial changes), whereas it negatively affects nonlinear creative thinking. Accordingly, we propose the following hypothesis: Moreover, cognitive load affects the operation of working memory and aids in divergent thinking (fluency) and convergent thinking (selection of concepts with greater originality through inductive thinking) during the creative process (Redifer et al, 2019).…”

The dark side of leadership: A systematic review of creativity and innovation

“…In our review of the literature, leadership, creativity and innovation were analysed in various ways, including self‐assessments, supervisor assessments and peer assessments. However, it is important to note that these evaluations may be influenced by personal and contextual biases (Calic et al., 2020; Kaufman, 2006, 2019; Mueller et al., 2012; Ng & Feldman, 2012; Paulus & Van der Zee, 2004; Podsakoff et al., 2012; Proudfoot et al., 2015). Self‐evaluations of creativity and innovation have been shown to be inflated, while individuals who experience workplace mistreatment often report negative self‐perceptions (Hershcovis & Reich, 2013; Ng & Feldman, 2012).…”